Group Seeks To Hire Nurses For Schools

When the principal at Sawgrass Springs Middle School wanted full-time medical care for her students, she asked the PTA to pay a nurse, who now works five days a week at the school.

"The clinic gets a lot of use. For every cut, bruise, headache or stomach ache, kids come down to the nurse's office," said Sally Kramer, president of the Parents and Teachers Association at the Coral Springs school.

But most Broward schools don't have full-time nurses to care for students. Thousands of Broward students depend on front-office personnel to administer to their health needs, including dispensing prescriptive drugs.

But school administrators saddled with the task of cleaning cuts and passing out pills might get help soon.

A nonprofit organization is undertaking an ambitious project to raise $8 million to $10 million to hire full-time school nurses for all Broward public schools.

School Nurse Partnership last month signed an agreement with the county school board and health department that would allow the organization to finance and to manage such a program. The partnership, along with the school district and health department, will interview, train and oversee the school nurses.

Applicants will have to be licensed registered nurses with pediatric experience and will have to undergo fingerprinting and background checks.

Today 24 health department nurses and two service aides rotate through 117 of Broward's 201 public schools, which means each of those schools has a nurse one day a week. Nurses are on call for 84 other schools.

The county determines which schools are in the rotation by the number of students on the lunch subsidy program and other community needs.

"Our research has shown that when there is a full-time school nurse in a school, the number of children sent home because of perceived illnesses drops by as much as 60 percent," said Susan Boyce, a registered nurse and executive director of the Partnership.

She said further research has shown that when there is no full-time school nurse, "as many as 30 percent of serious injuries requiring hospitalization are not initially recognized or referred for proper medical care."

Boyce said parents are surprised to find out that there are no full-time nurses in Broward schools. Her organization is not trying to alarm parents, she said, but to take the burden of student health care off school administrators.

Palm Beach County has full-time nurses. Miami-Dade County has about 60 nurses for its more than 300,000 students.

By law, every school has clinic facilities designated for bed space, but in many cases, these rooms have other uses.

The organization plans to do intense fund-raising and to apply for grants to support the program. It hopes to get five nurses for the start of school this fall.

Sylvia Bird, the state's nursing program director, said nursing ratios in schools statewide are woefully inadequate.

Not enough state funds exist to put nurses in all public schools, she said. Only $9.8 million is allotted for that purpose statewide. Florida gives about $2 million to Broward for its school-nurse program.

Bird said the state would need at least $200 million to fund nurses for schools statewide.

Some of the smaller counties have full-time school nurses. Palm Beach County has full-time nurses because of a joint program with health-care districts and area hospitals.

"Taking on a school health program is more than a notion. If [School Nurse Partnership] can raise adequate money to do it, then it would be great," Bird said.

Broward School Board member Stephanie Kraft said she welcomed the group.

"We all know there is a need for them. If the front office is dispensing medicine, it takes away from the rest of their responsibilities," she said. Parents and staff have to make a decision about an injury or illnesses' severity without a medical background.

Toni Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4550.